47th  Congress,  )  SENATE.  i  Report 

1st  Session.      *  I  No.  080. 


IN  THE  Si: X ATE  OP  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Juxk  5,  1332. — Ordered  to  be  priuted. 


Mr.  La.ph.vm,  from  the  Committee  ou  Woman  Suffrage,  submitted  the 

following 

COLUMBIA  LIBRARIES  OFFSITE 

lilllMll  REPORT: 

AR01491946  accompany  S.  Res.  G0.1 

The  Select  Committee  on  Woman  Suffrage,  to  whom  was  referred  Senate 
resolution  Xo.  GO,  proposing  an  amendment  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States  to  secure  the  right  of  suffrage  to  all  citizens  without  regard 
to  sex,  having  considered  the  same,  respectfully  report: 

The  gravity  and  importance  of  the  proposed  amendment  must  be  ob- 
vious to  all  who  have  given  the  subject  the  consideration  it  demands. 

A  very  brief  history  of  the  origin  of  this  movement  in  the  United 
States  and  of  the  progress  made  in  the  cause  of  female  suffrage  will 
not  be  out  of  place  at  this  time. 

A  World's  Anti-Slavery  Convention  was  held  in  Loudon  on  the  12th 
of  June.  1840,  to  which  delegates  from  all  the  organized  societies  were 
invited.  Several  of  the  American  societies  sent  women  as  delegates. 
Their  credentials  were  presented,  and  an  able  and  exhaustive  discussion 
was  had  by  many  of  the  leading  men  of  America  and  Great  Britain  upon 
the  question  of  their  being  admitted  to  seats  in  the  convention.  They 
were  allowed  no  part  in  the  discussion.  They  were  denied  seats  as  del- 
egates; and,  by  reason  of  that  denial,  it  was  determined  to  hold  conven- 
tions after  their  return  to  the  United  States,  for  the  purpose  of  assert- 
ing and  advocating  their  rights  as  citizens,  and  especially  the  right  of 
suffrage.  , 

Prior  to  this,  and  as  early  as  the  year  1830,  a  proposal  had  been  made 
in  the  legislature  of  the  State  of  New  York  to  confer  upon  married 
women  their  separate  rights  of  property.  The  subject  was  under  consid- 
eration and  agitation  during  the  eventful  period  which  preceded  the  con- 
stitutional convention  of  New  York  in  the  year  1840,  and  the  radical 
changes  made  in  the  fundamental  law  in  that  year.  In  1848  the  first  act 
"  for  the  more  effectual  protection  of  the  property  of  married  women" 
was  passed  by  the  legislature  of  New  York  and  became  a  law.  It  passed 
by  a  vote  of  93  to  9  in  the  assembly  and  23  to  1  in  the  senate.  It  was 
subsequently  amended  so  as  to  authorize  women  to  engage  in  business 
on  their  own  account  and  to  receive  their  own  earnings. 

This  legislation  was  the  outgrowth  of  a  bill  prepared  several  years 
before  under  the  direction  of  the  Hon.  John  Savage,  chief  justice  of 
the  supreme  court,  and  of  the  Hon.  John  C.  Spencer,  one  of  the  ablest 
lawyers  in  the  State,  one  of  the  revisers  of  the  statutes  of  New  York, 
and  afterward  a  cabinet  officer. 


2  WOMAN'  SUFFRAGE. 

Laws  granting  separate  rights  of  property,  and  the  right  to  transact 
business  similar  to  those  adopted  in  New  York,  have  been  enacted  in 
many,  it'  not  in  most,  of  the  States,  and  may  now  be  regarded  as  the  set- 
tled policy  of  American  legislation  on  the  subject. 

Alter  the  enactment  of  the  first  law  in  New  York,  as  before  stated,  and 
in  (lie  month  of  July,  1848,  the  first  convention  demanding  suffrage  for 
women  was  held  at  Seneca  Falls  in  said  State.  The  same  persons  who 
had  been  excluded  from  the  World's  Convention  in  Loudon  were  prom- 
inent and  instrumental  in  calling  the  meeting  and  in  framing  the  declara- 
tion of  sentiments  adopted  by  it,  which,  after  reciting  the  unjust  limita- 
tions and  wrongs  to  which  women  are  subjected,  closed  in  these  words : 

Now,  iu  view  of  this  entire  disfranchisement  of  one-half  of  the  people  of  this  coun- 
try and  their  social  and  religious  degradation;  in  view  of  the  unjust  laws  above  men- 
tioned, and  because  women  do  feel  themselves  aggrieved,  oppressed,  and  fraudulently 
deprived  of  their  most  sacred  rights,  we  insist  that  they  have  immediate  admission  to 
all  the  rights  and  privileges  which  belong  to  them  as  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

In  entering  upon  the  great  work  before  us,  we  anticipate  no  small  amount  of  miscon- 
ception, misiepresentation,  and  ridicule ;  but  we  shall  use  every  instrumentality  within 
our  power  to  effect  our  object.  Wo  shall  employ  agents,  circulate  tracts,  petition  tho 
State  and  national  legislatures,  and  endeavor  to  enlist  the  pulpit  and  the  pen  iu  our 
behalf.  We  hope  this  convention  will  be  followed  by  a  series  of  conventions  embrac- 
ing every  part  of  the  country. 

The  meeting  also  adopted  a  series  of  resolutions,  one  of  which  was  in 
the  following  words : 

Resolved,  That  it  Is  the  duty  of  the  women  of  this  country  to  secure  to  themselves 
their  sacred  right  to  the  elective  franchise. 

This  declaration  was  signed  by  seventy  of  the  women  of  Western  New 
York,  among  whom  was  one  or  more  of  those  who  addressed  your  com- 
mittee on  the  subject  of  the  peuding  amendment,  and  there  were  present 
participating  in  and  approving  of  the  movement  a  large  number  of  prom- 
inent men,  among  whom  were  Elisha  Foot,  a  lawyer  of  distinction,  and 
since  that  time  Commissioner  of  Patents,  and  the  Hon.  Jacob  Chamber- 
Iain,  who  afterwards  represented  his  district  in  the  other  house. 

From  the  movement  thus  inaugurated  conventions  have  been  held 
from  that  time  to  the  present  in  the  principal  villages,  cities,  and  capi- 
tals of  the  various  States,  as  well  as  the  capital  of  the  nation. 

The  First  National  Convention  upou  the  subject  was  held  at  Wor- 
cester, Mass.,  in  October,  1850,  and  had  the  support  and  encouragement 
of  many  leading  men  of  the  republic,  among  whom  we  name  the  follow- 
ing: Gerritt  Smith,  Joshua  E.  Giddings,  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  John 
G.  Whittier,  A.  Bronson  Alcott,  Samuel  J.  May,  Theodore  Parker,  Will- 
iam Lloyd  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Elizur  Wright,  William  J.  Elder, 
Stephen  S.Foster,  Horace  Greeley,  Oliver  Johnson,  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
Horace  Mann. 

The  Fourth  National  Convention  was  held  at  the  city  of  Cleveland, 
in  Ohio,  in  October,  1853.  The  Rev.  Asa  Mahau,  president  of  Oberlin 
College,  and  Hon.  Joshua  R.  Giddings  were  there.  Horace  Greeley  ami 
William  Henry  <  'banning  addressed  letters  to  the  convention.  Tin  let- 
ter of  Mr.  Chauning  stated  the  proposition  to  be  that  the — 

Right  of  suffrage  be  granted  to  the  people,  universally,  without  distinction  of  ses  j 
and  that  tho  age  for  attaining  legal  and  political  majority  be  made  the  same  fox 
voineii  as  for  men. 

In  1857,  Hon.  Salmon  1*.  Chase,  Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  then  governor  of  Ohio,  recommended  to  the  leg 
islature  a  constitutional  amendment  on  the  subject,  and  a  select  com- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


3 


mittee  of  the  senate  made  an  elaborate  report,  concluding  with  a  resolu- 
tion in  the  following  words  : 

Resolved,  That  the  judiciary  committee  he  instructed  to  report  to  the  senate  a  hill 
to  submit  to  the  qualified  electors,  at  the  next  general  election  for  senators  and  rep- 
resentatives, an  amendment  to  the  constitution,  whereby  the  elective  franchise  shall 
be  extended  to  the  citizens  of  Ohio  without  distinction  of  sex. 

During  the  same  year  a  similar  report  was  made  in  the  legislature  of 
Wisconsin.    From  the  report  on  that  subject  we  quote  the  following: 

We  believe  that  political  equality  will,  by  leading  the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  the 
sexes  to  a  just  degree  into  the  same  channel,  more  completely  carry  out  the  designs  of 
nature.  Woman  will  be  possessed  of  a  positive  power,  and  hollow  compliments  will 
be  exchanged  for  well-grounded  respect,  when  we  see  her  nobly  discharging  her  part 
in  the  great  intellectual  and  moral  struggle  of  the  age  that  wait  their  solution  by  a 
direct  appeal  to  the  ballot-box.  Woman's  power  is  at  present  poetical  and  unsub- 
stantial ;  let  it  be  practical  and  real.  There  is  no  reality  in  any  power  that  cannot  be 
coined  into  votes. 

The  effect  of  these  discussions  and  efforts  has  been  the  gradual  ad- 
vancement of  public  sentiment  towards  conceding  the  right  of  suffrage 
without  distinction  of  sex.  In  the  Territories  of  Wyoming  and  Utah, 
full  suffrage  has  already  been  given.  In  regard  to  the  exercise  of  the 
right  in  the  Territory  of  Wyoming,  the  present  governor  of  that  Terri- 
tory (Hon.  John  W.  Hoyt),  in  an  address  delivered  in  Philadelphia,  on 
the  3d  of  April,  of  the  present  year,  in  answer  to  a  question  as  to  the 
operation  of  the  law,  said  : 

First  of  all,  the  experience  of  Wyoming  has  shown  that  the  only  actual  trial  of 
woman  suffrage  hitherto  made — a  trial  made  in  a  new  country  where  the  conditions 
would  not  happen  to  have  been  exceptionably  favorable — has  produced  none  but  the 
most  desirable  results.  And  surely  none  will  deny  that  in  such  a  matter  a  single 
ounce  of  experience  is  worth  a  ton  of  conjecture. 

But  since  it  may  be  claimed  that  the  sole  experiment  of  Wyoming  does  uot  afford  a 
sufficient  guaranty  of  general  expediency,  let  us  see  whether  reason  will  not  furnish 
a  like  answer.  The  great  majority  of  women  in  this  country  already  possess  sufficient 
intelligence  to  enable  them  to  vote  judiciously  on  nearly  all  questions  of  a  local 
nature.  I  think,  this  will  be  conceded.  Secondly,  with  their  superior  quickness  of 
perception,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  wheu  stimulated  by  a  demand  for  a  kuowledge  of 
political  principles — such  a  demand  as  a  sense  of  the  responsibility  of  the  voter  would 
create — they  would  not  be  slow  in  rising  to  at  least  the  rather  low  level  at  present 
occupied  by  the  average  masculine  voter.  So  that,  viewing  the  subject  from  an 
intellectual  stand-point  merely,  such  fears  as  at  first  spring  up  drop  away,  one  by  one, 
and  disappear. 

But  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  a  very  large  proportion  of  questions  to  be  settled 
by  the  ballot,  both  those  of  principle  and  such  as  refer  to  candidates,  have  in  them  a 
moral  element  which  is  vital.  And  here  we  are  safer  with  the  ballot  in  the  hands  of 
woman ;  for  her  keener  insight  and  truer  moral  sense  will  more  certainly  guide  hir 
aright — and  not  her  alone,  but  also,  by  reflex  action,  all  whose  minds  are  open  to  the 
influence  of  her  example.  The  weight  of  this  answer  cau  hardly  be  overestimated. 
In  my  judgment,  this  moral  consideration  far  more  than  offsets  all  the  objections  that 
can  be  based  on  any  assumed  lack  of  an  intellectual  appreciation  of  the  few  questions 
almost  wholly  commercial  and  economical. 

Last  of  all,  a  majority  of  questions  to  be  voted  on  touch  the  interests  of  woman  as 
they  do  those  of  man.  It  is  upon  her  finer  sensibilities,  her  purer  instincts,  and  her 
maternal  nature  that  the  results  of  immorality  and  vice  in  every  form  fall  with  more 
crushing  weight. 

A  criticism  has  been  made  upon  the  exercise  of  this  right  by  the 
women  of  Utah  that  the  plural  wives  in  that  Territory  are  under  the 
control  of  their  polygamous  husbands.  Be  that  as  it  may,  it  is  an  un- 
doubted fact  that  there  is  probably  no  city  of  equal  size  on  this  conti- 
nent where  there  is  less  disturbance  of  the  peace  or  where  the  citizen 
is  any  more  secure  in  his  person" or  property,  either  by  day  or  night, 
thau  in  the  city  of  Salt  Lake.  A  qualified  right  of  suffrage  has  also 
been  given  to  women  in  Oregon,  Colorado,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Kan- 
sas, Vermont,  New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Michigan,  Kentucky, 


4 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


and  New  York.  Of  the  operation  of  the  law  in  the  last-named  State, 
the  governor  of  the  State,  in  a  message  to  the  legislature  on  the  12th 
]Vlay  last,  said: 

The  recent  law  making  women  eligible  as  school  trustees  has  produced  admirable 
results,  not  only  in  securing  the  election  of  many  of  them  as  trustees  of  schools,  but 
especially  in  elevating  the  qualifications  of  men  proposed  as  candidates  for  school 
boards,  and  also  in  stimulating  greater  interest  in  the  management  of  schools  genera  11  \ . 
The  eft'ect  of  these  new  experiences  is  to  widen  the  influence  and  usefulness  of  women. 

So  well  satisfied  are  the  representatives  in  the  legislature  of  that  State 
with  these  results  that  the  assembly,  by  a  large  majority,  recently  passed 
to  a  third  reading  an  act  giving  the  full  right  of  suffrage  to  women,  the 
passage  of  which  has  been  arrested  in  the  senate  by  an  opinion  of  the 
attorney-general  that  a  constitutional  amendment  is  necessary  to  ac- 
complish the  object. 

In  England  women  are  allowed  to  vote  at  all  municipal  elections  and 
hold  the  office  of  guardian  of  the  poor.  In  four  States,  Nebraska,  Indi- 
ana, Oregon,  and  Iowa,  propositions  have  passed  their  legislatures  ami 
are  now  pending,  conferring  the  right  of  suffrage  upon  women. 

Notwithstanding  all  these  efforts,  it  is  the  opinion  of  the  best  informed 
men  and  women,  who  have  devoted  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  to 
the  consideration  and  discussion  of  the  subject,  that  an  amendment  to 
the  Federal  Constitution,  in  analogy  to  the  fifteenth  amendment  of  that 
instrument,  is  the  most  safe,  direct,  and  expeditious  mode  of  settling  the 
question.  It  is  the  question  of  the  enfranchisement  of  half  a  race  now 
denied  the  right,  and  that,  too,  the  most  favored  race  in  the  estimation  of 
those  who  deny  the  right.  Petitions,  from  time  to  time,  sigued  by  many 
thousand  petitioners,  have  been  presented  to  Congress,  and  there  are 
now  upon  our  files  seventy-five  petitions  representing  eighteen  different 
States.  Two  years  ago  treble  the  number  of  petitions,  representing 
over  twenty-five  different  States,  were  presented. 

If  Congress  should  adopt  the  pending  resolution,  the  question  would 
go  before  the  intelligent  bodies  who  are  chosen  to  represent  the  people 
in  the  legislatures  of  the  various  States,  and  would  receive  a  more  en- 
lightened and  careful  consideration  than  if  submitted  to  the  masses  of 
the  male  population,  with  all  their  prejudices,  in  the  form  of  an  amend- 
ment to  the  constitution  of  the  several  States.  Besides,  such  an  amend- 
ment, if  adopted,  would  secure  that  uniformity  in  the  exercise  of  the 
right  which  could  not  be  expected  by  action  from  the  several  States. 

We  think  the  time  has  arrived  for  the  submission  of  such  an  amend- 
ment to  the  legislatures  of  the  States.  We  know  the  prejudices  which 
the  movement  for  suffrage  to  all,  without  regard  to  sex,  had  to  encoun- 
ter from  the  very  outset,  prejudices  which  still  exist  in  the  minds  of 
many.  The  period  for  employing  the  weapons  of  ridicule  and  enmity 
has  not  yet  passed.  Now,  as  in  the  beginiug,  we  hear  appeals  to  preju- 
dice and  the  baser  passions  of  men.  The  anathema  "woe  betide  the 
hand  which  plucks  the  wizard  beard  of  hoary  error''  is  yet  employed 
to  deter  men  from  acting  upon  their  convictions  as  to  what  ought  to  be 
done  with  reference  to  this  great  question.  To  those  who  are  inclined 
to  cast  ridicule  upon  the  movement,  we  quote  the  answer  made  while 
one  of  the  early  conventions  was  in  session  in  the  State  of  New  York  : 

A  collection  of  women  arguing  for  political  rights  and  for  the  privileges  usually  con- 
ceded only  to  the  other  sex  is  one  of  the  easiest  things  in  (he  world  to  make  fun  of. 
There  is  no  end  to  the  smart  speeches  and  the  witty  remarks  that  may  bo  made  on  the 
subject.  But  when  we  seriously  attempt  to  show  that  a  woman  who  pays  taxes  ought 
not  to  have  a  voice  in  the  maimer  in  which  the  taxes  are  expended,  that  a  woman 
whose  property  and  liberty  and  person  are  controlled  by  the.  laws,  should  have  no 
voice  in  framing  those  laws,  it  is  not  so  easy.    If  women  are  lit  to  rule  in  the  mon- 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


5 


archies,  it  is  difficult  to  say  why  they  are  not  qualified  to  vote  in  a  republic  ;  nor  can* 
there  be  greater  indelicacy  in  a  woman  going  up  to  the  ballot-box  than  there  is  in  a 
woman  opening  a  legislature  or  issuing  orders  to  an  army. 

To  all  who  arc  more  serious  in  their  opposition  to  the  movement,  we 
remind  them  of  the  words  of  Abraham  Lincoln: 

I  go  for  all  sharing  the  privileges  of  the  government  who  assist  in  bearing  its  bcr- 
dens,  by  no  means  excluding  women. 

Of  Bishop  Simpson : 

I  believe  that  the  vices  in  our  large  cities  will  never  be  conquered  until  the  ballot 
is  put  into  the  hands  of  women. 

Of  the  Eev.  James  Freeman  Clark  : 

I  do  not  think  our  politics  will  be  what  thej  ought  to  be  till  women  art  legislators 
and  voters. 

Of  George  William  Curtis: 

Women  have  quite  as  much  interest  in  good  government  as  men,  and  I  have  never 
heard  or  read  of  any  satisfactory  reason  for  excluding  them  from  the  ballot-box:  I 
have  no  more  doubt  of  their  ameliorating  influence  upon  politics  than  I  have  of  the 
influence  they  exert  everywhese  else. 

Of  Bishop  Gilbert  Haven  : 

In  view  of  the  terrible  corruption  of  our  politics,  people  ask,  can  we  maintain  uni- 
versal stiff rage  ?  I  say  no,  not  without  women.  The  only  bear  garden  in  our  com- 
munity is  the  town  meeting  and  the  caucus.  Why  is  thief  Because  these  are  the 
only  places  at  which  women  are  not  present. 

Of  Governor  Long,  of  Massachusetts: 

I  repeat  my  conviction  of  the  right  of  woman  suffrage.  Because  suffrage  is  a  right 
and  not  a  grace  it  should  be  extended  to  women  who  bear  their  share  of  the  public 
cost,  and  who  have  the  same  interest  that  I  have  in  the  selection  of  its  officials,  and 
the  making  of  its  laws  which  affect  their  lives,  their  property,  and  their  happiness. 

Of  Herbert  Spencer: 

However  much  the  giving  of  political  power  to  women  may  disagree  with  our 
notions  of  propriety,  we  conclude  that,  being  required  by  that  first  prerequisite  to 
greater  happiness,  the  law  of  equal  freedom,  such  a  concession  is  unquestionably 
right  and  good. 

And  of  Plato: 

In  the  administration  of  a  state,  neither  a  woman  as  a  w  oinan,  nor  a  man  as  a  man 
has  any  special  functions,  but  the  gifts  are  equally  diffused  in  both  sexes.  The  same 
opportunity  for  self-development  which  makes  man  a  good  guardian  will  make  woman 
a  good  guardian,  for  their  original  nature  is  the  same. 

It  has  become  a  custom,  almost  universal,  to  invite  and  to  welcome 
the  presence  of  women  at  political  assemblages,  to  listen  to  discussions 
upon  the  topics  involved  in  the  canvass.  Their  presence  has  done  mnch 
toward  the  elevation,  refinement,  and  freedom  from  insincerity  and 
hypocrisy  in  such  discussions.  Why  would  not  the  same  results  be 
wrought  out  by  their  presence  at  the  ballot-box  f  Wherever  the  right 
has  been  exercised  by  law,  both  in  England  and  in  this  country,  such 
has  been  its  effect  in  the  conduct  of  elections. 

The  framers  of  our  system  of  government  embodied  in  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  the  statement  that  to  secure  the  rights  which  are 
therein  declared  to  be  inalienable  and  in  respect  to  which  all  men  are 
created  equal,  "  governments  are  instituted  among  men  deriving  their  just 
powers  from  the  consent  of  the  governed."  The  system  of  representative 
government  they  inaugurated  can  only  be  maintained  and  perpetuated 
by  allowing  all  citizens  to  give  that  consent  through  the  medium  of  the 
ballot-box;  the  only  mode  in  which  the  "  consent  of  the  governed  "  can 
S.  Kep.  G86  2* 


6 


WOMAN  SUFFRAGE. 


be  obtained.  To  deny  to  one-half  of  the  citizens  of  the  republie  all 
participation  in  framing'  the  laws  by  which  they  are  to  be  governed, 
simply  on  account  of  their  sex,  is  political  despotism  to  those  who  are 
excluded,  and  "taxation  without  representation"  to  such  of  them  as 
have  property  liable  tp  taxation.  Their  investiture  with  separate 
estates  leads,  logically  and  necessarily,  to  their  right  to  the  ballot  as 
the  only  means  afforded  them  for  the  protection  of  their  property,  as  it 
is  the  only  means  of  their  full  protection  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  im- 
measurably greater  right  to  life  and  liberty.  To  be  governed  without 
such  consent  is  a  clear  denial  of  a  right  declared  to  be  inalienable. 

It  is  said  that  the  majority  of  women  do  not  desire  and  would  not 
exercise  the  right,  if  acknowledged.  The  assertion  rests  in  conjecture. 
In  ordinary  elections  multitudes  of  men  do  not  exercise  the  right.  It  is 
only  in  extraordinary  cases,  and  when  their  interests  and  patriotism  arc 
appealed  to,  that  male  voters  are  with  unanimity  found  at  the  polls. 
It  would  doubtless  be  the  same  with  women.  Iu  the  exceptional  in- 
stances in  which  the  exercise  of  the  right  has  been  permitted  they  have 
engaged  with  zeal  in  every  important  canvass.  Even  if  the  statement 
were  founded  in  fact,  it  furnishes  no  argument  in  favor  of  excluding 
women  from  the  exercise  of  the  franchise.  It  is  the  denial  of  the  right  of 
which  tliey  complain.  There  are  multitudes  of  men  whose  vote  can  be 
purchased  at  an  election  for  the  smallest  and  most  trifling  consideration. 
Yet  all  such  would  spurn  with  scorn  and  unutterable  contempt  a  propo- 
sition to  purchase  their  right  to  vote,  and  no  consideration  would  be 
deemed  an  equivalent  for  such  a  surrender.  Women  are  more  sensitive 
upon  this  question  than  men,  and  so  long  as  this  right,  deemed  by  them 
to  be  sacred,  is  denied,  so  long  the  agitation  which  has  marked  the 
progress  of  this  contest  thus  far  will  be  continued. 

Entertaining  these  views,  your  committee  report  back  the  proposed 
resolution  without  amendment  for  the  consideration  of  the  Senate,  and 
recommend  its  passage. 

E.  G.  LAPHAM. 
T.  M.  FEKRY. 
H.  W.  BLAIR. 

The  Constitution  is  wisely  conservative  in  the  provision  for  its  own 
amendment.  It  is  eminently  proper  that  whenever  a  large  number  of 
the  people  have  indicated  a  desire  for  an  amendment,  the  judgment 
of  the  amending  power  should  be  consulted.  In  view  of  the  extensive 
agitation  of  the  question  of  woman  suffrage,  and  the  numerous  and  re- 
spectable petitions  that  have  been  presented  to  Congress  in  its  support, 
I  unite  with  the  committee  in  recommending  that  the  proposed  amend- 
ment be  submitted  to  the  States. 

H.  B.  ANTHONY. 

C 


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